My Exploration of the AGO

Our class had the opportunity to visit the AGO last week and I was quite curious to see what they had done inside. As a 'newbie' to Toronto, this was my first time to see the interior and exhibitions of the AGO. From our classroom, we can see the backside of the AGO and I can't say that I was impressed with how the new building was integrated into the old structures. I kept thinking that they would be peeling off the 'blue film' and revealing some amazing finish but the final finish is the blue finish. Also as a design student, I found that the exterior staircase to be an odd shape and didn't integrate well into the building...it looked like someone just stuck it on the side of the building.

I'm a big fan of contemporary art and have visited many museums in North America and Europe to see many different exhibitions. The AGO has their collection of contemporary art on the 4th and 5th floor. I have to say that the collection was under-whelming. I found the gallery space to be quite small relative to other museums that I've been to.

My favorite piece would have to be the piece by Attila Richard Lukacs who is a Canadian artist and a graduate of Emily Carr. I'm a big fan of his work due to the provocative nature of his works. He first appeared on the art scene with his large scale images of homosexuality and skinheads. The AGO has a policy of no photography and I was unable to 'sneak' an image of the actual work...the security guy kept hovering around me. Instead I've chosen to post another piece of Lukacs work to give everyone an idea as to what his work is like.